Last spring my husband and I put our home on the market in hopes of buying a home on a few acres with some woods for our children to play in. The local real estate market is not very good, and with Obamas re-election, we have made the decision to ride out the coming storm in our current home with a little modification. We are going to turn the backyard play set into an awesome fort.

This fort will not be an adults idea of what a kids fort is which according to the internet is a playhouse on stilts. The best forts are enclosed and difficult for adults to enter. They also have a trap door, rifle roosts, and a zip line exit. What other ideas do you have that would make this fort even more fun for kids?

Just tell them the ground is lava and they have to deal with it. They’ll have lots of fun. A bicycle turned upside down is a crank engine and a ships wheel, by the way. They can navigate the lava that way.

You build it and they will use it a week or a month, OK maybe a year if it is superb.

Let them build it from plastic and scrap and they will spend that long “improving it”.

Sorry, but this is from almost 75 years of experience and observation. The last grandchild had a 5K fort and exercise area. After 2 years of no use they could not even get anyone to come and take it away free...

Some ideas here for making it a family area might be good.

14
posted on 11/15/2012 1:04:22 PM PST
by 3D-JOY
(If there were no United States Armed Forces there would be no United States of America)

Basement corner.
Row of cinder blocks surrounding with openings for shooting lanes; no more than 2. Mortar not required.
Second row of mortared cinder blocks, 3 feet away from inner row, with corresponding shooting lanes.
Industrial-duty air-movers and half face mask, multi (gray) canisters.
Full supply of ammo, sabot-slugs preferable if you have a shotgun.

It has a trapdoor in the main deck leading to the hold, as well as a door in the back that leads out of the hold at ground level. I have since cut portholes in the hold to let more light in. A few other amenities have also been added (like a bell).

When I was a kid we built forts out of hay bales, the rectangular kind, with boards to keep the ceiling structurally in place. Had the advantage of being well-insulated as well as quiet and "private," required no tools, and could be easily re-arranged as desired by the builders (us.)

I would second that. In my youth I built around 3-4 tree forts with my friends. I also cut down some trees and built a 12x12 log cabin on the parkland behind my house with handsaws and axes. That didn’t go over too well with the authorities, but I didn’t know any better then and it was a different time back then.

Fast forward to my daddy years and when my son turned 10, I got exicited about having a bit of land and a boy that age so I built a small log cabin out of recycled split rail fence board for my son. He helped a bit but after it was completed he used it about 8 to 10 times. Mostly during the airsoft wars.

If you build it they wont use it aside for the intial thrill. Make sure the kids have a big hand in designing and building it. You get the supplies and give them pointers.

Not exactly a fort but something I built for the grandkids a few years back. This is the third one of these I have built. Should be easy to add a zip line somewhere on the platform.

The unit is about 8' tall and the main platform is roughly 8' square. The walkway to the slide is 10' to 12' long and there are three swings hanging from it. The slide I made out of treated 2 x 12, plywood and sheetmetal for the speedy part.

Let them build stuff with you supervising and helping. Potatoe guns are awsome...but not be alright in tight quarters. There are a million boy building projects. The purpose is to teach them to build and see to it they “own” and appreciate what they create.

Make them help build whatever, or it will not mean as much to them. Our sons built a fancy shed to store thier big snow stuff and bikes in. They LOVED that shed. A shed.

If they are not old enough to use tools (with supervision) and make plans with dad, forgitaboutit. It will be taken for granted - “boring.”

So, when we were selling one of our houses the buyer was looking at the shed and said “this is a great shed” because it was. My son, age 17, said ‘that is because my brother and I built it special.” They built it (with thier dad) when they were 9 and 12. He showed the guy how they designed the roof so the snow would fall off and what all they put in the shed to hold what tools and stuff they needed. They had a “bike and tool bench” with electric and tool holders to work on their stuff.

This is the way you use “stuff” to educate your children. Make them center and responsible. Then they own it and are forever proud of it.

Best fort I had as a kid was a big old oak tree which had fallen down in the lot across the street - add some old vines to swing on and some corn stalks for “tomahawks” (sp? - and for anybody offended, tough), and you’ve got days and days of fun......

Get a 1000 gallon propane tank, cut a hatch in it, cut an escape hatch in one end. Put EMI gasket on the hatch/door, include 2 4-inch x 25 inch pipes for intake and exhaust air with a battery-powered muffin fan for the exhaust.

Let them decorate inside as they want.

bury it 3 feet underground.

They’ll have the only EMP protected fort in the neighborhood, and when Iran hits us with a High-Altitude EMP, they’ll be the only kids that can play their video games.

The fort I built my kids 20 years ago is still sitting in backyard. They used it off and on for a couple of years and that was it except for a few times when they were teenagers and needed a place to sit down while hanging out with their friends.

The best use it’s gotten has been as a hawk and owl perch for hunting squirrels and chipmunks. Great entertainment to watch them jump down, nail one of the critters, rip its guts out and fly back to their perch for a snack.

I bought a mobile kids’ fort. A 1975 Dodge Mobile home with 58,000 miles. I do not have to smog it. My kids enjoy having a base camp wherever we go. Take naps, sleep overnight, do projects, enjoy wi-fi, people-watching, climbing onto the roof, mobile whatever. I paid $2200, which is about $200 above what you would pay for a tent trailer. Imagine setting up a tent trailer every weekened, moving to a different location 3-4X per weekend.

Thank you to everyone for your input. There were so many wonderful and creative ideas, and gifts of wisdom also shared.

The game plan is to use the kids ideas to make the fort with a little parental wisdom included, and help THEM build it. We are doing this in place of buying toys for CHRISTmas and they love the idea. They can't stop talking about it.

39
posted on 11/16/2012 7:21:27 AM PST
by shatcher
(Judges 17:6b Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.)

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